WHAT CAN COMPANIES LEARN FROM FORMULA ONE RACING?

‘The Race is On!’ is based on Formula One (F1) racing, the most popular and competitive sport in the world.  It helps businesses at the individual, team and group levels: 

·        Improve performance and efficiency

·        Create ideas and improvements to innovate, and

·        Recognize where change is needed to create a competitive future

F1 teams compete to win – winning teams get more sponsorship and therefore make more money. But, as cars get faster and safer, races become less exciting, so people stop watching.  But, getting the teams to agree to changes leads to endless arguments. Competitive behaviour does not mean that the needs of the customer, the spectator, are met. 

By using the F1 analogy, teams discover when they need to coordinate their activities (e.g. process improvements), when they need to collaborate (e.g. to come up with new products or to create new markets) and when they need to change what they do (e.g. design their own processes, create their own software, move up the value chain, launch a new brand, design and build cars for their markets).

The simple visual processes make it easy for people to see what needs to be done and makes sure everyone does what they need to do.  Imagine what that can do for your business.   “If we had changed our ‘Formula’ 6 years ago when Insight Dynamics first alerted us, we would be a HK$6b company instead of a HK$1b company.”  CEO of a Hong Kong Consumer Electronics company.

Sometimes, being good at what you do isn’t enough.

You may need to be good at what you don’t do now.

Whether it’s cars, consumer products, luxury products, financial services, Asian companies can compete globally – successful companies don’t rely on protection, geography or history to do so. 

·         HSBC, a major global bank (and F1 sponsor) is ranked 37^th in the world in the BusinessWeek’s 2003 brand survey.

·         Kejian, a mobile  ’phone maker sponsors Everton, an English football team.

·         Legend, a Chinese PC maker has launched ‘Lenovo’ as a global brand.

·         Little Swan supplies General Electric with dishwashers.

·         Amore Pacific, a South Korean company owns the 5th largest selling brand in France.

·         SVA switched from producing conventional TV’s to high end plasma TV’s – it hired US Executives, Japanese production engineers and works with international design firms.

·         Tata Motors (India) displaced Suzuki and Hyundai by reducing the level of automation and a re engineering process to suit their conditions and are now exporting to UK and Europe.

·         Proton, Malaysia's state-owned car maker has seen a steady erosion of market share as foreign competitors slash prices on superior products.   

The message is clear – there isn’t a single formula for success.  Asian companies can create success on their terms by relying on their own ideas.  

A typical programmer outline – teams use the metaphor and materials to do the work in house

Acknowledgement:

This article is written by Mr. Jeremy M. Kidner and provided by Ms. Christine Choy - CHOY'S Human Resource Consultancy.

‘The Race is On!’ is designed for businesses in Asia.  Go to www.insight-dynamics.com for details or call Choy’s Human Resource Consultancy on Christine Choy at Tel: (852)3101-7703 or E-mail: christine@choyshr.com

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